Well, I tried a fresh install with another windows 98se cd and the installation went fine.
The problem that has since occurred on two occasions after starting windows up is this. I've left the computer running in windows 98, shut off the monitor and gone away for perhaps 45 minutes, then come back and turned the monitor on. Each time there was nothing on screen except a flashing cursor in the upper left corner. It happened a third time, as I was posting this reply, about 16 minutes after rebooting.
The only thing I did not do according to the hard drive manufacturer's instructions is install the 40 pin cable they provided with the hard drive. The hard drive is a western digital (Internal EIDE) and the motherboard is a variety of AMRplus. I still have to install sound and audio drivers. The drive is held inside a removable tray. I've made sure the tray is secure.
Is this a hard drive compatability issue or some other hardware issue? Unfortunately this is someone else's pc that I am trying to fix for them. Any help would be appreciated.